


i got your emotions tattooed on my sleeve

by honeybunbiscuit



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - 2000s, Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pining Keith (Voltron), you think i know what im doing? cuz i dont
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-18
Updated: 2020-02-19
Packaged: 2021-02-22 14:54:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22784716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/honeybunbiscuit/pseuds/honeybunbiscuit
Summary: Keith could barely respond before he felt his body being flung forward, his bike having been jolted to a stop. He felt himself floating for a mere second before his arms reflexively tried to block his fall. The concrete brutally scraped his arms, his body skipping along the sidewalk like a pebble, as he tried to keep his head from slamming on the ground. He could allow his body to be mangled but the last thing he needed was to take time off because he got a concussion from not knowing how to ride a damn bike. Feeling his body hit the concrete with a final thump, he rolled onto his back, gasping for air and struggling to keep his eyelids open. The scratches and scrapes he had accumulated were slowly starting to burn and his back had never felt so sore.Peering up at the sky, he allowed himself one last look at the soft colors before closing his eyes in defeat. Maybe today would not be the day he finally talked to Lance, but instead, be the day where he almost let his gayness kill him.-Or, the early 2000s fic where college student Keith decides that this will be the year he finally tries to sweep the pretty boy next door off his feet before the summer ends. You know, if he doesn't implode first.
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 34





	1. being a gay disaster: a tutorial by keith kogane

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't written a fic in literal years but I highkey missed it and I've had this sitting in my drafts for a long time. Shoutout to Ari for inspiring me with the prompt. 
> 
> Also have not picked an exact year when this is set but we will date it as it goes along. This is my first multichapter fic but this first one can be read as a stand-alone, technically.
> 
> this is heavily inspired by, and the title is from, [empty by kevin abstract](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RSQaVG7_QI)

He could see the sun slowly setting in the distance as its last blinding rays disappeared over the horizon. The sky was swarming with pale yellows and pinks, casting a dull glow along the pavement. Keith could hear the gentle sounds of a warm summer night slowly coming to life amidst the sound of his bike tires rolling across the pavement. There were the final clicks of sprinklers ending their cycle, kids being scooped up by concerned parents, and even the excited chatter of those other college kids who lived a block over getting ready for a night of celebratory drinking, despite there being no real reason. 

Yet, Keith’s favorite noise was the sound of gentle guitar strumming and soft hums to a tuneless song. The voice would grumble every once in a while, mad at itself for not knowing what to say next, but then would pick up not a moment later, continuing in a discordant melody that Keith had become too fond of. He could feel the wind becoming crisp, a grim reminder of how quickly autumn would be upon them and how soon the voice would leave him again.

As Keith turned onto his street, he could feel himself trying to avoid the crushing desperation of trying to see if there was a bright red vintage Cadillac parked in front of that noisy blue house in his cul-de-sac. Admittedly, his vision was a little blurry from having literally no sleep the night before because of a night shift but maybe if he squinted hard enough, and prayed even harder, he would see that stupidly pretty convertible in his driveway. 

Due to him being so exhausted and overworked, Keith was running on nothing but caffeine and pure adrenaline, meaning his brain was more focused on keeping him upright rather than his anxiety. If he could press on just a little harder, for just a little longer, then today could be the day he finally holds a conversation with the cute neighbor boy. When he glanced upwards, he saw it: a glimmer of red. He could feel his feet moving faster, propelling him forward as he raced home, eyes trained on the car in the distance. 

“Keith!” 

“Wh-?” 

Keith could barely respond before he felt his body being flung forward, his bike having been jolted to a stop. He felt himself floating for a mere second before his arms reflexively tried to block his fall. The concrete brutally scraped his arms, his body skipping along the sidewalk like a pebble, as he tried to keep his head from slamming on the ground. He could allow his body to be mangled but the last thing he needed was to take time off because he got a concussion from not knowing how to ride a damn bike. Feeling his body hit the concrete with a final thump, he rolled onto his back, gasping for air and struggling to keep his eyelids open. The scratches and scrapes he had accumulated were slowly starting to burn and his back had never felt so sore.

Peering up at the sky, he allowed himself one last look at the soft colors before closing his eyes in defeat. Maybe today would not be the day he finally talked to Lance, but instead, be the day where he almost let his gayness kill him. 

“Shit,” someone hissed, “Are you okay?” 

Keith blinked up blearily, eyes refusing to focus and instead conjured up tiny, moving dots to annoy him even further. All he could see was a pair of glasses framed by messy brown hair. So, it was either Matt or Pidge who killed him, but he would find out when he ended up haunting them. 

And with that final thought, Keith let himself black the fuck out. 

When he woke up, he assumed he would see a blinding bright light, or an even more expected fiery red flame, but instead he was greeted by something even more heavenly. 

“You okay, sweetheart?” was spoken by a smooth and concerned voice with an even more concerned and prettier face to match. Bright blue eyes were piercing into his skull, which by the way, was pounding like crazy. His body burned and ached and he felt a slight tugging on his leg. 

Keith tried to will himself up onto his elbows so that if this was some crazy coma-induced dream, he would at least look presentable. But a long hand pressed gently against his chest and helped him to relax back onto his couch. 

His couch?? Keith didn’t even have a chance to survey his surroundings, which was even more disappointing than his embarrassing fall outside. Oh fuck, he totally humiliated himself in public. Well, if he didn’t die from this, he might just end himself anyways. 

“Lance,” an authoritative and very much concerned voice called out, “Give him some air, please.” 

“No problem, Shiro!” 

Lance?! Keith let his eyes flicker over to his left and saw Lance, tall and beautiful Lance, leave with a bottle of antiseptic and a wet cloth. He wanted to say something, something cool and impressive to make up for the overall humiliation of this whole scenario. Then Lance would stop and turn around and straddle him or something and then Shiro would go do whatever he does somewhere else. 

“GUIRabuo.” Keith garbled out. 

Or, you know, the earth could swallow him whole. That would be cool too. 

He felt his pantleg being pulled down from his knee back down to his ankle and then he felt himself being lifted up like a ragdoll, and Keith prided himself on being more muscle than most guys his age. Strong arms squeezed the life out of him until he could choke out another garbled sound that was a mash of the words ‘hunk’ and ‘help.’ 

“Put him down before we actually have to take him to the hospital,” Pidge said, nonchalantly from her place on the other couch.

“Wotor?” Keith coughed out, still not being able to say actual English words, once Hunk finally plopped him back down onto the couch. But to his surprise, a hand was already holding out a glass of water to him. He took it gratefully before downing the whole glass in a second. 

“Charming,” Pidge remarked. Shiro took the glass back and set it down onto the table in front of them. 

Keith cleared his throat, “Hello to you too.” He adjusted himself into an adequate sitting position, which basically meant he was sprawled across the couch with Pidge still kneeling next to his leg and Hunk and Shiro hovering over him. His head was foggy but he didn’t feel too much pain. 

“Move, please,” Pidge said, without any sincerity, and pushed Keith’s legs so she could sit down on the couch and plop his legs on top of her own. 

Ah, there’s the pain.

Keith grunted, wanting to say something witty and clever, and instead just allowing himself to throw a really harsh glare that he hoped would scare Pidge to her core. 

It didn’t obviously but he could still hope. 

The glare that Shiro sent her was much more effective and Keith could feel her legs tense beneath his own. He sighed, running his hand over his forehead before smiling tiredly at Keith, “You feeling okay, buddy?” 

Keith grunted, “I mean, this entire ordeal is wack, but other than that, it’s all good.” 

Pidge chuckled before going eerily quiet, her back straightening up and her face void of any emotion, before she turned her head towards Keith, almost robotically, before she blinked at him. 

“You flaming homosexual,” Pidge said. “You living gay disaster.” 

“Pidge!” Shiro and Hunk exclaimed but Pidge just shooed them away without taking her eyes off of Keith. 

“It was because of him, wasn’t it?” Pidge asked, her lips twitching into a faint smile.   
“Because of whom?” Shiro asked, obviously very confused. 

When Hunk let out a very loud gasp, Keith knew this was getting into very dangerous and potentially monumental embarrassment, so he jumped up and then immediately regret it. He bit his lip as his vision blurred for a split second. Shiro reached for him, but he backed away, slowly popping his back into its proper place. 

“I’m fine! 100% fine!” Keith exclaimed, face heated and he hoped he could just brush it off as he dragged his stupidly sore body into the kitchen.

Pidge laughed, scurrying like the little rat she was and followed Keith into the kitchen with an almost psychotic smile. “You’re whipped! You would never say the word wack! You don’t even use social media!” 

Keith tried to form some kind of adequate response, “…I have a MySpace?” Man, he must have hit his head really hard or he was actually truly gone for Lance. He didn’t know which was worse at this point. 

Pidge rolled her eyes and huffed, “You wouldn’t say those words if you weren’t thinking of the very person who _actually_ would use those words.” 

At this point, Keith could feel himself practically glowing red and with Hunk’s knowing eyes and Shiro’s ‘I’m actually quite confused but I will pretend to understand until someone tells me later’ face looking right at him, he knew it was a matter of time until someone said something stupid. 

“Now, I have deduced,” Pidge continued to ramble, “that precious Keith here got a little too excited and crashed his bike because he was excited to see the one and only love of his life-” and Keith never moved so fast as to clamp his hand over Pidge’s mouth as said love of his life popped out from the hallway. 

“Keith!” 

And there he was. Standing tall and gorgeously giddy in his hallway was the downfall of Keith’s summers for the past three years. Someone who made Keith excited to be back home from school, someone who made Keith stay awake blushing at three in the morning, someone who actually made Keith so happy he crashed his bike trying to see his face for the first time this summer. 

He smiled, “Lance.”


	2. of awkward introductions and more awkward confessions

When Keith woke up that morning, he assumed he would just bike to his shitty job at the diner, have a shitty workday, have a shitty bike ride home, and then have a shitty yearning while sitting in his bedroom. The absolute last thing he would have expected is to have Lance’s surprisingly strong arms wrapped around his sore torso. He could feel the bruises burning on his skin, but why should he care when he has the pretty neighbor boy doting on him like never before?

Man, maybe he is a gay disaster.

Lance pulled back, his hair matted to his forehead and smelling strongly of grass, and let his arms rest casually on Keith’s shoulders. “You know, I didn’t expect that our grand reunion would be me seeing you unconscious in the middle of the road.” 

Oh, and there goes the blood to his cheeks. “Well, uh, you know me, just chock full of surprises…”

Lance smirked, leaning in to whisper against his ear, “You’re lucky you didn’t give yourself a concussion, Sleeping Beauty.” 

Oh, and there goes the blood to his dick. At least that’s still working. 

Keith cleared his throat, taking a step back and now noticing how Pidge had slipped away to have the most mischievous looking small talk with Hunk. All he had to do now was just talk to Lance like a normal human being. Easy, right? 

“So,” Keith remarked.

Lance lifted an eyebrow and rested his hands on his hips. “So?”

“School…” Keith chuckled nervously. “It’s, uh, over now.” 

“Yeah,” Lance nodded slowly, “That’s why I’m back home.”

“And me...as well…” Keith trailed off. Do you know those moments that you just know you’ll be haunted by how awkward it is by the time you’re forty? This right here was that moment for Keith. 

Suddenly, what he could only assume was his very kind guardian angel, knocked very loudly at the door, “Oh thank god.” He sighed with relief, already heading towards the door. “Coming!” 

As Keith opened the door, the last thing he expected to see was two little kids who were very much sweaty and very much trying to enter his home. It’s not like Keith hated children, but he did not appreciate it when they were pushing at his incredibly sore legs to look inside.   
“Uncle Lance!!” The little girl cried, and Keith finally understood who these small humans belonged to. 

“Get back here, stupid!” The boy yelled, pulling on his sister’s shirt collar. He then looked up at Keith, trying quite hard to be the more responsible one. It was frankly quite adorable. 

Keith could hear a loud groan from behind him as Lance quickly walked towards the front door. He placed a gentle hand on Keith’s lower back to move past him and wow, maybe now isn’t the best time for him to be around children. 

Keith took a step back and let Lance walk out onto the doorstep. Lance was saying words to them, very clearly English, but all Keith could focus on was how easily he lifted the two of them onto his shoulders, trying to hold back a very bright smile as the two kids writhed in his arms, laughing loudly. 

He then coughed awkwardly into his hand, “Uh, do these two belong to you?” 

Lance turned around, having seemingly forgotten about where he was, as he continued letting the two kids climb on him as if he were some kind of lanky tree. 

“Yeah, unfortunately,” He said, to which the kids immediately started barking out insults. “Watch your mouths! Just ‘cuz he doesn’t speak Spanish doesn’t mean I don’t know what you’re saying!” The two kids murmured out apologies as Lance finally placed them out on the ground.

“Introduce yourselves, you little gremlins,” He chuckled as they whined once more. 

“I’m Silvio,” the little boy stuck out a hand to Keith that he shook gently. He was about half of Keith’s size with at least three band-aids on his legs. The girl, however, stood firmly behind Lance’s legs, twirling one pigtail in her small hand. 

“Come on, Nadia,” Lance gently reprimanded, trying to push her forward. Keith could feel the others walking up behind him as he dropped to his knees in front of her. Keith pushed aside a stray hair in front of his eyes and the girl squeaked and stuck her hand out, refusing to make eye contact with him. 

“My, my, my name is Nadia!” She almost shouted at him. Keith flinched back for a second before shaking her tiny hand, to which her face practically lit up and turned the brightest shade of pink Keith had ever seen. She quickly ran behind Lance’s legs as he gave a bewildered look to Keith who just shrugged in response and stood back up. 

“I’m Keith,” he introduced himself, “and this is Pidge, Hunk, and my brother Shiro,” Keith said, motioning at each one behind him. 

“Hey, we’ve met before!” Hunk barked indignantly, “You do realize me and Pidge are honorary McClain members?” 

Keith just rolled his eyes while the little boy started bouncing excitedly, “You guys could come for dinner tonight too!” 

“No!” Lance shouted. 

Well. That was uncharacteristically, uh, fucking weird. 

“No?” Keith asked, eyebrows furrowing. Lance got very flustered then, sweeping the kids off their feet again as they both desperately writhed in his arms. 

Lance laughed in the most forced way, looking at the ground, “T-Tonight is no good! It’s a family reunion dinner. Don’t wanna bore you guys. Maybe another time, ok? Okay! Goodnight!” 

Before anyone could respond, Lance practically sprinted away to the blue house next door, long legs taking him and the kids out of sight before Keith could even blink again. 

“Huh,” Hunk grunted. “That was definitely-”

“Interesting?” Shiro offered. 

“Bizarre?” Keith said. 

“Adorable,” Pidge smiled, getting three owlish stares in response. She shrugged, “I like kids! Sue me!” 

Then a dark blue station wagon pulled up into Keith’s driveway, making Pidge roll her eyes and let out a loud groan.

“Speaking of children…” she trailed off as her older brother, Matt, jumped out of the driver’s seat. Even though she sounded annoyed, she couldn’t help smiling as she ran out the door towards him. 

“From the window!” Pidge cried, picking up speed. 

“To the walls!” Matt replied, jumping in place ridiculously. 

“Till the sweat drops down my balls!” They both screamed as Pidge launched herself into Matt’s arms. He spun her around as they both laughed excitedly.

“This is a public neighborhood!” Hunk yelled out, as the two flipped him off. 

“I brought pizza for all those who can appreciate quality music!” Matt yelled back, still carrying Pidge as she hugged his body like a koala. 

“I’ll clear the table,” Keith sighed, letting a small smile form at the corners of his mouth as he headed back inside and let the other two go help with the weird sibling reunion that was happening on his driveway. 

It was about an hour and a half later when the five of them had cleared through three boxes of pizza and two liters of soda that Hunk and Pidge were fiddling around with literally everything Keith owned in his room while Matt and Shiro were off catching up somewhere else in the house. Keith was lying on his back in his bed, throwing up a ball and catching it effortlessly, before Pidge started speaking again from where she sat on the floor, fiddling with Keith’s old GameBoy. 

“So,” she began, starting to talk like a newscaster, “We have returned to the summer of the pining Keith. As we consider the events of the day, I see this summer being one filled with longing looks and once again, zero progress towards any sort of confession. We now go to our field agent, Hunk.”

“Thanks, Pidge,” Hunk said, picking up the same tone from where he sat next to the window in Keith’s bedroom. “Today was quite the hurricane of events with our precious little Keith-”

“I’m not precious,” Keith grumbled, propping himself up on his elbows. 

“As I was saying,” Hunk barked, as Keith went back to throwing his ball up in the air, “Our precious little Keith took quite the tumble today in his excitement to see our incredibly weird but still very dope friend, Lance. He received several small cuts and bruises and a fatal blow to his ego.” 

“Hunk!” Keith said indignantly.

“But in the pro category, we do have Keith saying more than three words to Lance as well as him meeting his niece and nephew. Maybe it wasn’t the most eloquent or romantic meeting today, but we can say that- HOLY MOTHER OF ABS!” Hunk shouted. 

“What?!” Keith squeaked, before the baseball that he had thrown up hit him squarely on the forehead. “Motherfucker,” Keith cussed as he scrambled out of bed and towards the incredibly blessed window that allowed him to have an almost direct view into Lance’s room. Now considering that Lance was gone for most of the year living on campus as part of a scholarship, Keith usually didn’t see much of anything when he looked out of his bedroom window. In fact, when Shiro and he first moved here, he was quite upset at the lack of a view he had. 

He was very much eating his words right now. 

By the time Keith had made it to the window, Pidge was already leaning on top of Hunk to look into Lance’s room. “If today’s accident didn’t kill you,” she laughed evilly, “this definitely will.”

As much as he hated to admit it, she was right. There stood Lance, just ten feet away, standing in his bedroom facing left with his shirt off, and what a sight that was. It’s not like Keith had never seen him shirtless, but it’s just that the last time he had seen him shirtless was about a year ago. 

Now a year later, Lance was all lean muscle with a defined six-pack and arms a lot bigger than Keith remembered. His skin was still that gorgeous shade of brown, even darker than usual with the heat of the summer, and his sweatpants were riding dangerously low on his hips with a very obvious v-line keeping them up. Then, Lance turned around to rifle through his dresser, facing away from the window entirely, and there was something on his shoulder that made Keith’s mouth drop. 

“That dumbass got a tattoo?!” Pidge exclaimed, practically bouncing in place with excitement.

“And he didn’t tell us?” Hunk said, incredulous, “Now my feelings are hurt.” He crossed his arms as Keith tried to lean in closer. 

“Shut up,” He said in a low voice, offhandedly. He could see what looked like a swimming blue dolphin the size of his fist on Lance’s upper right shoulder, rippling as his muscles moved to decide what shirt he should throw on before he finally chose a random tee-shirt and walked out of sight. 

“No,” Keith whined. Christ, he really just whined because he couldn’t get a closer look at one of the best additions he could imagine to Lance’s body. 

“Get it together, dork,” Pidge rolled her eyes before walking away to sit on Keith’s bed with Hunk following to join her. Keith plopped himself into the chair Hunk was just sitting in, dejectedly. Pidge opened her mouth, surely to make fun of him again, before Shiro popped his head into the room. 

“Everything okay in here, kiddos? I heard some yelling,” Shiro said, trying to hold back a laugh, his face oddly red. 

“Yeah,” Pidge smirked, “We were just talking about how Keith-”

“Are you drunk?” Keith asked Shiro, deliberately cutting Pidge off and sending a serious look her way. She just stuck her tongue out, grabbing the baseball he had been throwing around earlier. 

“Whaaaaat?” Shiro giggled, voice much higher pitched. “Why would you say that?” 

Keith rolled his eyes, “Come on, man, your skin is literally glowing.” 

Shiro laughed incredulously and only then could they hear Matt’s panicked whispering behind him. “I’m not drunk! You’re drunk!” 

“No,” Keith blinked at him. “No, Shiro, I’m not.” 

Shiro threw him a goofy smile before shrugging his shoulders and starting to walk away. “You’re a weird little boy, Keithy.” Then he heard heavy footsteps as he and Matt ran to some other part of the house, laughing like idiots. 

“Dammit, now I have to drive him home,” Pidge groaned, lying down on her side on the bed, throwing her feet up on Hunk’s legs. 

“Oh, boo-hoo,” Keith said, snarkier than he meant to. Pidge glared at him as Hunk tensed up, already feeling the weird shift in tone. 

“What crawled up your ass and died?” Pidge replied. “Or is it more about who’s not up your ass?” She said, giving him a lopsided grin. 

“Will you cut it out?” Keith retorted, running a hand over his face before staring up at the ceiling. He could still see the faded glow-in-the-dark space stickers littering the ceiling from when he put them up a couple of years ago. He could also see Hunk and Pidge sharing a look out of the corner of his eye, before deciding to just shut them closed completely. 

“Everything okay, buddy?” Hunk asked, gently. 

Keith let out a deep sigh, pushing his bangs out of his face before letting them flop back down in front of his eyes. “Can you just cool it with the...,” He stammered, “the, you know, jokes?” 

They just stared at him blankly before he continued, grabbing a Rubik’s cube off of his desk and fiddling with it. He quietly sighed as he got all the reds on one side before looking up at them again. “Could you guys just chill out with the jokes about,” he looked around before letting his voice drop to a whisper, “Lance?” 

Pidge and Hunk shared another look, continuing whatever mental conversation they were having before they started laughing to themselves. Pidge finding it so insanely funny that she had to bury her face into the blanket on Keith’s bed to stop herself from openly sobbing as her feet kicked a Hunk who was also trying to hide his laughter behind a large hand. 

“I’m sorry, buddy,” Hunk started, trying to get his breathing back, “But when have you ever wanted us to not talk about Lance with you?” 

Keith felt his ears turn red before he let himself hunch over and stare back at the toy in his hands, “Just...just when Shiro’s around, okay?”

“Wait,” Pidge said, removing her glasses to wipe the corner of her eye, “Does Shiro not know you like Lance?” 

Keith swallowed, voice catching in his throat, “Shiro doesn’t know I’m gay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I cranked this out in one afternoon lol
> 
> Thanks for reading! Kudos and comments are always appreciated <3
> 
> go check out the [tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/pallatron)

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading! If you want me to continue, or not, uh drop a like or comment.
> 
> I also have a [tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/pallatron) so there's that.


End file.
